A political analyst sees Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bid to woo PAS and forge closer political co-operation with the Islamists as his way to prepare for the 14th General Election in 2018, in the wake of corruption allegations, after having been disappointed with non-Malay support in the last General Election in 2013.“At that time, Najib even openly complained for a time until he was advised against it, that he was done in by a Chinese political tsunami, despite his 1Malaysia theme.”“Not so long ago, his politics was based on the ‘You help me, I help you’ theme with the Chinese. In 2008, it was a political tsunami that hit the ruling Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.”Then, said the analyst, Najib came up with the idea of forging closer political co-operation with Hindraf Makkal Sakthi but the arrangement ended after GE13 when Hindraf Chief P. Waythamoorthy resigned as Senator and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. “Waytha complained that Najib never kept any of his promises.”“Hindraf is now further than ever from Najib.”Najib’s latest political move with PAS, said Shahbudin Husin the analyst, was nothing new. “Najib is always into one form of political cooperation or another with various groups all the time.”“During the recent Umno General Assembly, after having denied a voice to his critics on the twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion political ‘donation’ controversy and the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal – he extended an olive branch to his party deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, whom he sacked in late July as Deputy Prime Minister along with Umno Vice- President Shafie Apdal from the cabinet.”Najib also offered, during his address at the Umno meet, to co-operate politically with PAS.This time, the analyst sees the Prime Minister reviving his “You help me, I help you’ theme but with the Islamists who have been left out of Pakatan Harapan, the new informal opposition alliance. “His sudden push for co-operation with PAS wouldn’t happen if former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin, and Shafie had not been against him.”“Najib needs PAS as much as PAS needs him. Co-operation with PAS will make it easier for Najib to move against his critics in Umno. PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang suddenly finds the twin mega scandals not an issue any longer.”In short, reiterated Shahbudin, political co-operation with PAS will help Najib finish off Muhyiddin, Shafie, Mahathir and other critics in Umno once and for all. “Added to that is the push for Malay votes in GE14 as the main priority for him.” - fmt

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